The Berlin Wall shortly after it fell, Machu Picchu at dawn, Mt. Everest and the Himalayas, St. Basil’s Cathedral and Red Square, Neuschwanstein Castle, The River Kwai, Sunrise at Kopan Monastery, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, The Duomo of Florence, Dolphins in Doubtful Sound, The Eiffel Tower, The North Face of the Eiger, Anne Frank House, Victoria Peak, Hong Kong, The Aran Islands, World Trade Center – October 2001, sunrise from Mt. Kilimanjaro’s summit, and the resilience of the Puerto Rican people after Hurricane Maria.

Longer Journeys I’ve Taken

Tanzania
My visit to Tanzania was literally a mountaintop experience. My friends and I summitted 18,950-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro on a crisp day in January 2006. We also went on safari and enjoyed the beaches of Zanzibar.

PeruThe long-awaited journey to South America finally happened when Midori and I honeymooned in Peru. We saw Machu Picchu, of course, and we also took some time to help the elderly poor in Lima.

ThailandLuck was on our side when Midori and I scored a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world. To decide where we should go, we literally pulled Thailand out of a hat. We were not disappointed!

New Zealand and ChinaMy group of traveling buddies was bestowed the name “The Flying Yanks” on this journey by an old woman who was hiking the Milford Track in New Zealand with us. I also took a “quick” side trip to China.

RussiaPerhaps my most ambitious solo journey was to Russia in 2002. While there, I not only rediscovered a deep interest in Russian culture, but I also found a mission to help orphans in need.

RV journey across AmericaFollowing the death of my mother in 2001, I traveled in her RV across the United States and shared my grief with a nation grappling with the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

NepalThe trip that lit the fire for a decade’s worth of global adventures, my journey to Nepal tested my physical endurance in the Himalayas and my mental strength at a retreat in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery.

IrelandA beautiful two-week stay in the West of Ireland featured a week in a restored parsonage in County Mayo and a near-collision with a cow while cycling blissfully between the hedgerows.

Europe 1990
My first solo journey took me to Austria, Italy, Switzerland and West and East Germany. Some of my most prized possessions are the chunks of the Berlin Wall I gathered, only a few months after it fell.

Europe 1983
I took my bushy teenaged head of hair on its first international trip to West Germany and Austria in 1983. I toured the area by bicycle with a dozen other teens and two unfortunate adult chaperones.